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Saturday, August 17, 2013

A Blend Of Literature & Art

I wanted to thank my French Professor Cloé for all the good things she had taught us and how she has inspired us and opened a door towards a new style of thinking, teaching and learning.

So after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to gift her one of my poems that I had written a long time back and which I consider to be one of my best. But simply framing a poem did not make the gift special. So I started thinking of an idea to make it more creative and convert it into a work of art. Making the paper look antique was an immediate idea that occurred to me.

In search of methods to realise my idea, I browsed through several websites and videos. It was interesting to notice so many people who had tried it and wanted to share their learnings. So I began taking prints of the poem in different types of paper and fonts, dipped them in coffee and tea before baking it to an ideal temperature and time. I played a lot with different concentrations of tea and coffee and also with the temperatures.

Finally, Tea worked better than coffee for me and temperature around 150 for not more than 2-3 minutes seemed perfect. The same setting might not work for others but what you need to make sure are following things -

Place the paper in a baking tray and pour tea.

Allow the tea to spread for not more than a few minutes. (May the solution not be too strong)

Bake at a lower temperature and for less time, else the paper looks charred.

After many such iterations, I finally found my best. I used a thicker sheet of paper. For an interesting effect, you can also crumble the paper first or burn the sides after baking.